Although it is a changing trend, current composite manufacturing processes are still far away from the experience and reliability of metallic parts manufacturing processes. When some new structure is invented, it is not always an easy thing to apply the knowledge of metallic manufacturing to composite manufacturing. New methods are continuously being developed to make possible and improve the manufacturing of new pieces or existing ones.
At the same time, new configurations and new solutions are being designed to face some known problems, e.g., stiffening aeronautic structures. These stiffeners are usually beams defined by their cross section. When choosing the cross section, it is important to take into account several features of the cross section, such as weight, moment of inertia and crippling behavior. Choosing a Y cross section is a good option to face these problems, but the manufacturing of stiffening elements with such a cross section presents its own drawbacks. The complex geometry and the multiple angular points, together with the closed space formed by the diagonal portions of the Y and the element to be stiffened makes it impossible to use the manufacturing methods described in the state of art for other geometries.
Because of that, new and/or alternative methods must be developed, to achieve solid pieces but allowing enough degrees of freedom so that the piece is suitable for a particular aim.